Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. I refer the Deputy Prime Minister to the 10 June 2003 email to his department from Michael Long which, if electronic files were not provided to Volcker, was not provided to the Volcker inquiry either. Minister, didn’t this email contain the memorandum from the Coalition Provisional Authority, asking your representative to ‘identify which contracts under the oil for food program have a kickback or surcharge, often 10 per cent, and to identify and indicate them on the matrix’? Minister, what action did your department take to obtain this matrix—yet another warning of the AWB’s involvement in kickbacks to Iraq—or was this warning ignored also?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the best of my knowledge, that email did not mention AWB. The second point is that the reference was to Iraqi ministries; it was from within the Coalition Provisional Authority, so that information would have been available to Volcker.